Florida Gators
Kentucky
Men's Basketball Concludes Regular Season With 85-72 Win Over Kentucky
Sunday, March 4, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Juniors Al Horford (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) and Joakim Noah (New York, N.Y.) each recorded double-double performances to lead the No. 4 Florida Gators (26-5, 13-2) past the Kentucky Wildcats (20-10, 9-7), 85-72, on Sunday afternoon at the Stephen C. O'Connell center in front of a crowd of 12,614.
After a closely contested first half that left the game tied at 43-43, the Gators opened the second half by going on an 11-2 run. Junior Taurean Green (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) led the run for UF with five points, and then Horford and Noah took control and paced the rest of the game for the Gators.
Horford netted 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting and tied for a game-high 10 rebounds to record his 13th double-double of the season and the 25th of his career, tying him with Udonis Haslem for the seventh-most double-doubles in UF history. Horford also made history by becoming the 41st Gator to reach 1,000 career points when he sank a free throw with 1:41 left in the game. By achieving the feat, Horford became the fourth Gator to do so this year joining juniors Corey Brewer (Portland, Tenn.), Green and Noah.
Noah recorded his fifth double-double of the season and 13th of his career by tying for a team-high 17 points on 6-of-8 from the field and tied Horford with a game-high 10 rebounds. Noah scored 13 of his points in the second half.
The Gator who tied Noah for the game-high 17 points was Green, who finished the day 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and also led the team with five assists.
The win for the Gators is significant on many fronts for UF. The Gators became the first Southeastern Conference team to ever win six straight contests against Kentucky. UF completes the regular season with a school record 18 wins and went undefeated in the O'Connell Center for the first time since 1993-94 (13-0). Florida now holds a 19-game winning streak at home dating back to last season as well. Also, the Gators reached 26 wins for just the fourth time in school history, and UF also set a school record for conference wins (13) in a 16-game schedule.
The win was also significant for seniors Humphrey and Chris Richard, as they became the winningest players in school history with 103. Richard also has now played in a school record 132 career games surpassing the previous record of 132 that he shared with Matt Bonner. Humphrey finished with 11 points against Kentucky including going 3-for-7 on three pointers. He has now made at least one three-pointer in 30 consecutive games and is approaching the school record of 33-straight games set by former Gator Brett Nelson. Richard contributed four points and pulled down four rebounds on the day.
Not to be overshadowed was the performance put forth by sophomore Walter Hodge (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico). Hodge was one of the five Gators to score in double figures finishing the game with 15 points. What's more impressive about Hodge's outing was that he finished perfect from the field (5-for-5) including three baskets from beyond the arc while also going 2-for-2 on free throws.
As a team, the Florida finished the game shooting 64.0 percent from the field (32-for-50) including a stellar 69.6 percent in the second half. UF also shot 52.9 percent (9-for-17) on three pointers in the game.
Kentucky's biggest advantage in the game was outscoring the Gators 25-10 on points off of turnovers, but Florida held the edge in virtually every other category. The Gators outscored UK 44-26 in the paint, 12-7 on second chance points, 19-11 in bench points and 6-4 on fast break points. UF also pulled in 35 rebounds while the Wildcats had 23. The largest lead of the game for UK was six points with 14:16 left in the first half while the Gator's largest advantage was 16 points with 2:41 remaining in the game.
Kentucky jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the contest, but the Gators battled back to go up 10-8 as lead changes would be come the theme of the first half. The Wildcats took the lead back and went up by as many as six at 19-13 advantage before the Gators went on a 10-0 run sparked by a three-pointer from Humphrey to go up 23-19. UK took the lead back at 24-23 to start a stretch where the teams exchanged the lead on nine straight scoring possessions that left the Wildcats on top. However, Florida made the final lead change of the period when Humphrey sank a three to make it a 38-36 Gator advantage. The half went on to come to a close in a 43-43 tie. Hodge lead the Gators with 10 points in the first period. All toll, the first half featured a total of 13 lead changes and six ties.
Bobby Perry led the Wildcats with a game-high 20 points including going 4-for-7 on three pointers. Kentucky also had a total of five players score in double figures, as Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, Randolph Morris and Jodie Meeks also achieved the feat.
Up next, the Gators travel to Atlanta, Ga. for the SEC Tournament at the Georgia Dome scheduled for March 8-11. By winning the regular season SEC crown with a 13-3 record, Florida will be the No. 1 seed for the tournament. The Gators will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, March 9 against the winner of the first round game between the No. 4 SEC West seed and the No. 5 SEC East seed.
